It seems everyone around the proverbial ASX water cooler has been talking about Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares this week.
On the surface, that's nothing too unusual. As the ASX's second-largest (perhaps soon to be largest) share, as well as the spiritual leader of the ASX big four bank stocks, CBA is never far from the front of mind when discussing the Australian share market.
But this week, there are three reasons CBA shares might have been even more prominent than usual in the minds of ASX investors. Let's get into them.
3 reasons everyone has been talking about CBA shares this week
An avalanche of new record highs for CBA shares
ASX investors have probably become used to seeing the CBA share price clock the odd new record high. After all, we've seen this ASX bank reset its high watermark quite a few times over the past 12 months.
But this week, we saw no fewer than three fresh records for Commonwealth Bank shares. Tuesday had the bank soar up to $128.97 a share. That record didn't last too long though.
By yesterday, CBA had topped that, reaching up to $130.30 a share. But that high was to last for less than 24 hours. Today, investors have sent the bank higher yet again, with CBA topping out at its new record high of $131.70.
This cascade of new records is enough to get ASX chins a-wagging by itself.
The CBA dividend yield enters mediocre territory
Of course, these fresh new highs for CBA shares haven't come without a cost. That cost would be this bank's dividend yield.
As most ASX investors would know, the ASX banks are well-known for their chunky, fully franked dividends. CBA used to be in that club, with investors enjoying a typical yield of between 4-5% in days of yore.
But not anymore. The galloping CBA share price has had the perverse effect of lowering the bank's dividend yield to something unrecognisable for an ASX bank.
Today, CBA is trading on a yield of just 3.46%.
Not only is that well below National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB)'s 4.55%, but it is getting close to half of the 5.98% that ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ) currently has on the table.
This un-banklike dividend yield would also be provoking some discussions amongst income investors this week.
ASX 200 hits new record high
It's not just CBA shares hitting new records this week. We've also enjoyed a far rarer event today – a new all-time record high for the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) itself. Yep, this Friday has seen the ASX 200 clock a new record of its own – 7,969.1 points.
What does this have to do with CBA shares? Well, as we went through earlier today, ASX 200 investors largely have CommBank to thank for this new high.
CBA shares are up a healthy 15.8% over 2024 alone. Since this bank is the second-largest stock in the ASX 200 by market capitalisation, its 9.22% weighting in the index means its share price performance has a disproportionately large impact on the broader index.
Put simply, if CBA wasn't hitting new high after new high this week, we probably wouldn't see the ASX 200 at a new record itself.
So even if investors don't directly own CBA shares, they probably still have a reason to thank the bank today.
